Is Walmart Safe?
The Effects of Established Supercenter Walmarts to Property Crime Rates within Dekalb and Gwinnett County from 1999-2010
Class: Economics & Finance Modeling
Professor: Doctor Derek Tittle
Dream Team Group Members:
Alexandra E Steingaszner
Brian-Paul Gude
Kristopher Bryant
Norman Gyamfi
Samantha Gowdy
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Disclaimer
This report has been created in the framework of a student group project and the Georgia Institute of Technology does not officially sanction its content.
Executive Summary
Every year, Walmart is accused of increasing crime in areas within which it builds Walmart Supercenters. Yet, research and data analyses largely disprove these claims, as they reveal that other factors such as
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Iterations of analysis eliminated data points that were listed as “unusual observations,” or any data point with a large standardized residual. After 5 iterations, the analysis showed improved residual plots. Randomness in the versus fits and versus order plots means that the linear regression model is appropriate for the data; a straight line in the normal probability plot illustrates the linearity of the data, and a bell shaped curve in the histogram illustrates the normality of the data.
Because of the method of monthly data collection, absolute randomness could not be obtained; however, it was decided that 5 iterations was sufficient because the sixth iteration showed a decrease in the quality of the residual plots. The first test performed was the p-value test of the individual variables. A p-value is the probability, ranging from 0 to 1, of obtaining a test statistic similar to the one that was actually observed. The only input that did not have a p-value less than 0.05, which was the chosen significance level, was the “Number of Walmarts” variable; the number of Walmarts has no specific effect on the output, property crime rate. The R2 of the analysis, or the coefficient of determination, provides a measure of how well future outcomes are likely to be predicted by the model. R2 values range from 0 to 100% (or 0 and 1) and the
15 In testing the hypotheses: H0 β1 ’ 0: vs. H1: β 1 ≠ 0 , the following statistics are available: n = 10, b0 = 1.8, b1 = 2.45, and Sb1= 1.20. The value of the test statistic is:
Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue (approximately four hundred and eighty billion dollars) and the largest private employer in the world with two point three million employees. Walmart is also one of the world's most valuable companies by market value, and is also the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. “One Nation Under Walmart” is a case about how Walmart has taken over the retail business and the effects of their market domination. The case also shows statistics of how much percentage Walmart is of many suppliers’ sales. According to the case Walmart has a 30% market share of all household items. Twenty-eight percent of Dial’s business and twenty-four percent of Del Monte’s business go through Walmart stores. It is also worth noting that Walmart imports ten percent of all United States imports from China. The case states that Walmart is able to offer cheaper prices because they put so much pressure on their suppliers to lower their prices. The case, “One Nation Under Walmart”, explains the problems that some people have with the massive retailer. One of these problems is how Walmart has forced numerous local businesses to close their doors through their extremely competitive pricing. They are able to purchase bulk goods at such low prices and thus pass the savings onto customers. As a result of these lew costs, rivals are driven out of business which results in a loss of jobs. Jobs are vital to the success of a community and with Walmart causing job
Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by
Wal-Mart is now the largest grocer, largest retailer, largest corporation in the world. "If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have a bigger economy than 80 percent of the world's countries"(Singer and Mason). About "138 million people go to one of Wal-Mart's 5,000 stores in the United States and nine other countries", and purchase more than $300 billion every year (Singer and Mason). With a 1.6 million global workforce, Wal-Mart has become the biggest private employer "in the United States, as well as in Mexico and Canada"(Singer and Mason). "Wal-Mart already has 11 percent of all U.S. Grocery store sales," and "by 2013 that figure is likely to rise to 21 percent"(Singer and
Some, towns that have been dominated by the monopoly that is Wal-Mart, see up to 80% of the local crime take place in the parking lots of Wal-Mart. Many of these Wal-Mart’s don’t have security surveillance cameras outside of the store, unless they are cameras to get rid of union sympathizers. The fact that the actively secure the inside of the store protecting their merchandise and does not implement the same security outside of the store shows that Wal-Mart only cares about itself. In the documentary, notably around 30 cities were listed as having serious crimes of rape, murder, shooting, assault, carjacking, and ect. Most of which were un-documented due to lack of evidence. A mega-corporation that claims to utilize all necessary precautions and security fails to implement it outside of their benefit. Also in some these small town Wal-mart has been known to drive out small businesses competitors without any remorse. People who make their entire living or have sustained their family with a business for generation has seen all there hard work and dedication trampled by the giant feet of Wal-mart. It is unfair that Wal-Mart has monopolized its industry and is un-regulated by the government meaning
“If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone… we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.” –Sam Walton (“What We Do”)
1) Should Wal-Mart be expected to protect small businesses in the communities within which it operates?
The safety audit will be performed at a Walmart location in Orangeville, Ontario. It is the biggest retail store worldwide with $482.1 billion in revenue and has 2.3 million associates. As I have worked there for the summer holding an instock position in the back room unloading trucks, I have gained knowledge and understanding on the safety issues and standards that exist within the company.
Many reports have been written documenting the economic and eventual social and environmental degradation which occurs when Wal-Mart “comes to town”.
Not only does Walmart directly affect the economical situation of your community, it also puts significant strain upon the environment we live and depend on. In October of 2004, North America sued Walmart for violating the Clean Water Act CWA in nine states, causing a huge uproar both from the defensive Walmart corporation and more so from the targeted communities. Relying upon a communities oblivion, Walmart takes advantage of the situation in which it's presented, posing a threat to all nearby water supplies because of all the toxins and pesticides literally oozing from Walmart facilities worldwide. Much more costly towards the environment than the tinkling of spare change resounding in our pockets. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a single Walmart location expends countless amounts of energy to maintain,
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our
The thirty data sets were plotted into a scatterplot and a linear regression analysis was used to show the
When you talk about Wal-Mart the first thing that you have to remember is that they are the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart employs more people in the United States than any other company and is second only to the federal government in the number of employees that they have on the payroll. These are important facts to consider in that due to their tremendous size, Wal-Mart has an enormous
The one-step approximation the estimates, generalized cook distance and likelihood distance are considered. Cook and likelihood distance are two statistical diagnostics method. Models diagnostics procedures imply both graphical and formal statistical tests. These procedures recognize us to inspect whether the supposition of the regression model are justifiable and decide whether we can belief subsequent inference outcome. We use these methods to explore the performance of residual and influence in nonlinear regression model. These residuals can produce confusing results when used in diagnostic method corresponding to those for linear regression. Simulation provide to
Figure ~\ref{fig:sa1_lm} shows the basic diagnostic plots for the full linear model. The residuals vs. fitted plot is used to determine if the linear relationship between the predictors (parameters) and outcome factors are captured by the model. An accurate model will have a residuals vs. fitted plot with a horizontal line with residuals above and below it without forming a pattern or grouping, as seen in the top left plot. Moreover, the normal Q-Q plot, shown in the top right plot, is used to determine if the residuals are normally distributed. A good normal distribution will have a normal Q-Q plot which follows a straight line, as do our results. Furthermore, the Scale-Location plot shows if the residuals are spread equally along all ranges of the predictors. Ideally, the residuals should be randomly spread across all fitted values and not tend to one area, as ours do in the bottom left plot. Likewise, the Residuals vs Leverage plot determines how big of an impact outliers points have on the regression curve. Additionally, outliers away from the Cook’s distance will have a large